Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After serving four years as Chief Investment Officer of Veritas Pension Insurance, Kari Vatanen departs from the smallest of the four pension insurers in Finland. He will be stepping down from his role effective April 29 to embark on a new opportunity in November 2024. Vatanen will join rival pension insurance company Elo as Head of Allocation, and will be reporting to Elo’s CIO, Jonna Ryhänen.

“On behalf of the company, I would like to warmly thank Kari for a good job,” announces Carl Haglund, the CEO of Veritas Pension Insurance. “During Kari’s time, the company’s investment operations and strategy have developed significantly,” he adds. Kari Vatanen joined Veritas in March 2020 after spending 13 and a half years at Varma, currently the largest of the four pension insurance companies in Finland’s private sector earnings-related pension system. At Varma, Vatanen held various positions, including Head of Cross Assets and Allocation, Quantitative Strategist and Portfolio, and Chief Risk Officer.

“On behalf of the company, I would like to warmly thank Kari for a good job. During Kari’s time, the company’s investment operations and strategy have developed significantly.”

Carl Haglund, the CEO of Veritas Pension Insurance

Laura Wickström, a portfolio manager with a focus on private equity and other illiquid alternative investments, will serve as the interim CIO of Veritas until a permanent successor is appointed. Wickström has been with Veritas for just over six years, following an extensive career at Finnish alternative investment manager and fund-of-hedge fund manager AIM Capital, where she most recently served as Chief Executive Officer.

As the smallest of the four pension insurers in Finland, Veritas manages an investment portfolio of €4.6 billion. Veritas had €481 million or 10.5 percent of its investment portfolio allocated to hedge funds at the end of the first quarter of 2024. The pension insurer achieved a return of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, outperforming its peers during the same period. The strong performance was primarily driven by an 8.4 percent gain from the more than one-third allocation to listed equities, while the hedge fund portfolio advanced by 2.5 percent in the first quarter. Under Kari Vatanen’s reign as CIO, Veritas delivered a return of 5.6 percent in 2020, 12.6 percent in 2021, followed by a loss of 4.5 percent in 2022, and a recovery of 5.7 percent in 2023.

Updated on May 6 to reflect that Vatanen will join rival pension insurance company Elo as Head of Allocation on November 1.